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The Kickstarter for the virtual reality rock opera, [NUREN] The New Renaissance, is in it’s final couple of days, and if you hadn’t noticed, it’s added quite a bit of additional content and updates in the past couple of days. In the second half of it’s crowdfunding lifespan. the project has added:

There’s still a couple days left and time for a few more surprises within the campaign, so anyone holding out should keep their eyes peeled for the next 4 days for last-minute additions.

If you haven’t heard of [NUREN] yet, it’s based as a collection of music videos, each with it’s own unique musical score, that are strung together as a complete story with a virtual reality gameplay mechanic. Optimized for the Oculus, but fully playable on PC, the game currently has demos of the game out for Windows & MAC OS X available on the kickstarter page.

You can learn everything about the project and updates on the campaign page.

The original soundtrack for the upcoming indie release, Out There: Ω Edition, has just released via Bandcamp for those wanting to get a leg-up on the music for the game prior to its release.

Composed by Siddhartha Barnhoorn (The Stanley Parable, Antichamber) to compliment the rogue-like resource-management game, the soundtrack features ambient tones that will change depending on the heavily bodies you encounter within the game. The original, vanilla version of the game was releases in March of 2014, and the new Ω Edition will feature reworked versions of the music from the classic game by Barnhoorn.

Sid was inspired by the sound waves emitted from the stars to create different atmospheres you’ll encounter wether you’re next to a supernova, a blue giant or a black hole. For the garden planets (the ones where you’ll find alien life forms), Sid invited vocalist Lara Ausensi. She used her ethereal voice to bring life in three exclusive tracks.

- mi-close studio

Out There: Ω Edition is currently in beta and Greenlit by Steam for release. The soundtrack is available on Bandcamp for $5 for the 23-track album, or you can pre-order the game on their website with the soundtrack for $14.99 and have the music available shortly thereafter on your Humble account. The soundtrack will also be available on iTunes on March 30th.

It’s hard to believe that The Legend of Zelda series is only a year away from being three decades old, but one fan is getting a jump on the anniversary with the release of the electronica arrangement album, Hyrule: Melodia et Concordia.

The franchise began with the release of the first game on February 21st, 1986 to the Famicom Disk System and whose music has been echoing within the memories of game enthusiasts ever since. Hailing from Portugal, album creator and arranger Shiryu says this project has been a long time coming.

“This is my third collaboration with Meus Jogos DS and one that is way overdue because I love the music of Zelda and I often think how to best pay homage to it’s iconic themes. I hope you enjoy the finished product and that like me when making this tribute album, these bring you some really awesome memories. Thank you, Nintendo. Enjoy!“

- Shiryu via Bandcamp

The album, which focuses on electronic melodies and ambient cues, has been released to Bandcamp for four Euros (approx. $4.50 American dollars) for 15 tracks. A nice tribute to one of the most iconic franchising in gaming history.

Neo XYX (XYX pronounced “Zikes,” rhymes with “likes”) is the latest shooter from the unique group NG:DEV.TEAM. They’ve been putting out special way-past-end-of-life games for Sega Dreamcast for quite some time now, and their games also appear as arcade cabinets (usually just in Japan). NG:DEV has had for most, if not all, of their game music, turned to German composer Rafael Dyll. Games like Last Hope, Gunlord, and another studio’s (Sidequest STudios’) recent RPG Rainbow Moon all had their music composed by Dyll.

In this latest soundtrack, Rafael Dyll ventures into new musical territory, trying out new styles and instrumentation that I’ve not heard him take up before. The end result? Follow along to get my answer. (more…)

Do you like chiptunes? How about a massive amount of chiptunes all compiled by some of the scene’s diverse blood? How would you like 50+ assorted tracks all bundled together at a price you get to determine?

You just basically got the gist of Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 3 that just came out this week. Comprised of a slew of the chip community’s bigger names and even some newcomers to the scene, the album delivers a grand assortment for your listening pleasure. Directed by Brandon “President Hoodie” Hood with art by Nate “FoxxDragon” Horsfall, Volume 3 also features additional merchandise and a whole bunch of antics and tomfoolery.

Details about the album can be found on the ChipWIN Blog, and the album can be grabbed for whatever price you want on the group’s Bandcamp page, along with all of the previous albums. I definitely recommend checking the compilation out and dare you not be shaking certain posterior body parts while doing so.

If you haven’t heard, the soundtrack to Shovel Knight, one of the most anticipated games to come out of Kickstarter in the past year, has officially been released on composer Jake “Virt” Kaufman’s Bandcamp. Along for the ride is also a special arrangement album featuring several of the game’s tunes done by several artists in the arrangement scene.

They’re good. Really good. Currently-top-on-Bandcamp good. And at a “Name-Your-Price” dollar amount to get both albums, you have no reason not to get them. And to take it a step further, Kaufman has even released the .NSF original files for anybody to has a compatible player to enjoy!

We’ll no doubt be doing an extensive review of the albums in the near future, but until then, be sure to grab them and enjoy the awesome.

The awesome lads over at Year 200X have opened up the pre-orders for their new album “World of Ruin EP”. The 6-track album features arrangements from Mega Man X, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy 6 and more. It is available for a limited-time pre-order of $5 for the digital album, and $7 for the physical which includes the physical disk in digipak and liner notes that fold out into a six-panel poster. Artwork by Kurt Horsfall!

Go check it out over on their Bandcamp and grab yourself some awesome tunes!

There are plenty of chip music makers out there these days. I have respect for all of them — it’s difficult work, to be sure. But one person I especially admire is Chipzel. She broke onto the scene when she wrote the three-track OST for Super Hexagon. But she has plenty of original works out there too.

The latest among them is Spectra, released in September 2013. This full-length album was created entirely in LSDJ, so it’s pure Game Boy goodness. The nature of this album? I think the headline gives it away, but if you want a detailed report, as well as where you can pick up the album, keep reading!

Jimmy “Big Giant Circles” Hinson has released his soundtrack to Threes!, the hit iOS puzzle game. The album contains the original track,”Threes is the Bees Knees,” from the game, an alternate and unused version of the same track, and an extra unused piece that he wrote for the project. It’s a small set of music, but definitely a must have if you’re a fan of the game. To sweeten the deal, the soundtrack is currently available with a pay-what-you-want price tag. Not a bad deal for a 3 track album. If you enjoy the game’s music or enjoy some light and soothing jazz tunes, check out the album on the Big Giant Circles Bandcamp page.

After a highly successful Kickstarter campaign and a very long wait, Stoic Studios has released their debut title The Banner Saga. The dev team was largely made up of ex-Bioware employees, but they knew exactly whom they needed to craft the music for their Norse-set RPG: Austin Wintory.

Yes, the man who blazed a trail, setting new standards for VGM with his incredible soundtrack to Journey (which we gave our top award to in 2012), agreed to write a full soundtrack for this ambitious project. Now the game is out on Steam, and Kickstarter backers such as myself got the game and its soundtrack a few weeks early.

Thus, I’ve had time to digest the contents of this soundtrack, which is available on Loudr and Bandcamp. My thoughts on Wintory’s latest release, after the jump! (more…)

You know life’s pretty awesome when you get more Inverse Phase popping up in the video game music and chip music scene, and it’s fantastic when it’s right during the start of the new year. Why slug through a cold winter, right after grand events like MAGFest, and be jonesing for new tunes to keep spirits high?

Case-in-point here is Treachery in Beatdown City: Episode 1, which pays tribute to all the sidescrolling beat ‘em ups of the 8 and 16-bit era that most of us ’90s kids grew up on, such as Double Dragon and Bad Dudes with some RPG aspects thrown in for good measure. There’s nothing like a good beat ‘em up game, and this particular one allows us gentle listeners a delightful cadre of chip music courtesy of Mr. Brendan “Inverse Phase” Becker.

Recently the Bandcamp Weekly, a podcast hosted by Andrew Jervis, had a special show featuring interviews with various videogame music composers. During the podcast, Jervis spoke with Danny Baranowsky, Laura Shigihara, Austin Wintory, Jim Guthrie, Disasterpeace, and Big Giant Circles about their careers, the nature of game music, and their approaches to writing music. The show of course featured music by the composers themselves, as well as some selections from other videogame music albums.

It’s a great 90 minutes of discussion about various aspects of the game industry and how composers and their music are involved. For those of you looking to learn about some of the artists in the game music world, especially the indie games, it’s a great introduction and you may just find yourself checking out some new tunes to add to your library. Definitely give this podcast a listen.